


Empty Love Nest

by Ray_Writes



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Future Fic, Married Couple, Trans Male Character, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29434770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ray_Writes/pseuds/Ray_Writes
Summary: Green Arrow’s son and upcoming successor takes on a rather predictable villain while Oliver and Laurel talk about the future.
Relationships: Connor Hawke & Laurel Lance & Oliver Queen & Olivia Queen, Connor Hawke & Olivia Queen, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen
Comments: 21
Kudos: 18
Collections: Lauriver Valentines





	Empty Love Nest

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, all! This oneshot doesn’t have the biggest emphasis on Valentine’s Day itself, but is just meant as a look into what the day could’ve been like for an Oliver and Laurel who got to have a family together while also being the city’s heroes (instead of both dying incredibly young). This is set in the same “universe” as one of my recent Christmas pieces, “In the Family”, but takes place a couple years prior, meaning my backstory for Connor Hawke is still the same. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Connor hadn’t had plans himself. He didn’t really go in for all the schmaltzy romance stuff, just happy to finally be feeling comfortable in his own skin to bother worrying about throwing someone else in the mix. And he liked being able to do his folks a favor every now and then, after everything they’d given him by making him part of their family.

But he was seriously regretting subbing in for the Green Arrow on Valentine’s Day.

He dodged yet another heart-shaped projectile launched his way and loosed his own volley of arrows, watching Carrie Cutter — better known as Cupid — dance out of the way of them. He should’ve figured she’d be in top form today of all days.

“What’s the angle this time, Cutter?” He called out to her. “Love’s to die for?”

“ _ You _ wouldn’t understand,” she declared. “But you’ll lead me to the real Arrow. You won’t keep me apart from my Valentine!”

_ “Real one-note, isn’t she?” _ Liv said over the comm.

Connor shook his head wearily, in perfect agreement with his sister. “Come on, you’ve hashed this out how many times? He’s not coming this year, he’s at date night.”

Cutter went rigid, nostrils flaring. “With Canary?” She wrung the arrow she had just pulled between both hands, snapping the shaft. “I’ll kill her!”

“Yeah,” Connor muttered under his breath and readied a stance his mom had drilled him on as the villain charged. “Thought you might say that.”

—

Oliver set two mugs of cocoa down on their coffee table, smiling as Laurel lifted the end of the blanket for him to scoot under. It wasn’t as if he was cold himself, but he’d welcome the excuse for her to cuddle up into his side for an evening.

He was pretty proud of himself. An early dinner at Mario’s; they’d made it home before a very light rain that had already petered out; and he’d even managed to find the old mugs Liv had painted back in fourth grade with hearts and wonky black and green splotches on them she’d said were supposed to be birds and arrows. Oliver had comforted her at the time by saying it was probably a good thing they’d come out more abstract so as not to make the art teacher suspicious. Not once had he called or texted their daughter at the base for an update on how Connor was doing. He would just trust they had taught their son well, and that — little by little — Oliver could learn to take a step back now and then.

“It feels too quiet,” Laurel remarked as she picked up her mug.

“Yeah,” he agreed. He knew on some level they’d had a life before the kids, but that seemed like another timeline at this point for how different they were now. Thea had remarked more than once that they were going to make terrible empty-nesters someday, and he could privately admit she had a point. “So how do we fill the silence?”

Laurel’s lips curved into a smirk around the rim of her mug, eyes sparkling. “You don’t sound as innocent as you think you do.”

“I don’t?”

Her head shook, and he let himself grin. Oliver leaned forward, one arm braced on the back of the couch and the other looping around her waist. Laurel’s mug was set aside as she brought a hand to his face, thumb caressing the beard he had started growing for the winter months. She tasted like chocolate, and better than the mug.

“We should have more kids.”

She snorted. “Every year you say that, you know it gets more and more impossible, right? Not less.”

She was right, of course. They’d both be 50 by the end of this spring. Seemed strange to think about. All the time gone, even if he knew he had wasted much of the early years. He let that thought go; he wasn’t going to dwell on past mistakes on a day meant to celebrate that they’d found each other again.

“Adoption’s an option.” It wasn’t like they’d never done it before. And Connor had turned out great, in his opinion.

Laurel bit her lip, thinking. “What about fostering? There’s a lot of older kids, you know, who never end up feeling at home anywhere. If you’re actually being serious about this.”

“I could be serious about it.” Like many of his ideas, it had come to him quite impromptu, but the more he turned it over, the more his mind latched onto it. It would need more consideration than this, Lord knew. This was the future of at least one young person they were talking about, if not more, not to mention their family. But he thought about kids like Roy and how one conversation like this between two people like him and Laurel could have made all the difference in his life. Even if they eventually had made a difference to Roy in a different sense.

Yes, it bore more thinking later on. “For now, though, I am serious about going through the motions of making another baby.”

“‘The motions’? That’s what we’re calling it now?” Laurel teased, her smirk giving way to a shriek of laughter when he tickled under her arm. Oliver tossed the blanket aside and leveraged himself over Laurel instead, humming when her legs wrapped around his waist.

Their plans were interrupted when both their phones beeped with the same notification of a news alert, and on instinct they both checked.

_ Cupid and Green Arrow’s successor dueling downtown _

Oliver frowned. Conner was good, but Cutter was a challenge. And particularly when she went full-unhinged as she no doubt would be today…

“Come on,” Laurel sighed, on the same wavelength as he was like always. “We better go take care of the babies we already have.” She pulled him up from the couch with both hands, and with practiced ease they were on their way to the base.

—

Connor dodged another swipe of Cupid’s bow and almost caught her in the back, but she kicked out which forced him to jump aside. She whirled around to face him, her breath a good deal more labored than his by now.

_ “Wonder what we’re gonna do with all the retired supervillains in another decade?” _ Liv asked, and even if it was rhetorical, he snorted.  _ “By the way, you’re getting back-up. Couldn’t stop them.” _

Cutter’s eyes widened on something over his shoulder just as Connor picked up the roar of the bike.

“Aw, man…”

“I knew you’d come!” Cupid cried. “But you could’ve left Birdie behind.”

“Sorry, we’re a package deal,” his mom replied dryly after she cut the engine, swinging a leg over to stand in full Black Canary regalia. His dad was suited up as well.

“Hey, I had this!” Connor told them both. Sure it hadn’t been easy, but he’d been wearing her down.

“Sorry, buddy,” his dad said. “Old habits.”

“And holiday tradition,” his mom added, blowing Cutter a Canary Kiss that bowled the other woman over, followed by one of his dad’s net arrows to wrap the villain up. “Happy Valentine’s, Carrie!”

The archer let out an inarticulate scream of rage. Connor moved forward the pluck the fletchete she’d been attempting to work out of her sleeve from her fingers. “You could’ve just dealt with me, just saying.”

Still, when he looked up at his parents enjoying a post-victory kiss, he figured they probably had had a pretty good time after all.


End file.
